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30 May 2017

Last week we actually had summer up
here in Yorkshire. True and beautiful, awful to be stuck inside a building
while it lasted and incredible when you got to enjoy it outside. Of course,
being Yorkshire, even 5 days of summer was way too long so that gorgeous hot
and sunny weather is over now, but just at the end of it my family and I
managed to go out to our friends for a barbecue.

In all honesty, wearing this dress
sort of just happened rather than was planned. I needed something that was
comfortable but light, able to accommodate excessive eating without making me
feel like a pig yet still cute. And then I remembered this dress, which turned
out absolutely perfect. When I received it in the lucky pack I was unsure about
it, but decided to give it a go – now that I have I absolutely love it, it’s my
new summer favourite and I already have further plans for it. Although I still
can’t imagine wearing it in a 100% true Lolita way (I’m not sure how this would
accommodate a petticoat, even a smaller A-line).

We also had loads of fun at the
barbecue. It was nearly 3 years since my last barbecue – which tells you a lot
about weather in the North of England and how fickle summers are. As is common
with Polish people, there was way too much food which we somehow managed to eat
(at least most of it), there was loud talk and people complaining about how hot
it had been that week (and that Friday was literally the last hot day, it got
chilly and rainy the following day). But we all enjoyed ourselves.

Too much food for one small table

It’s a shame that the weather didn’t
last at least a little bit longer. I have a week off now due to school holidays
and it would’ve been nice to play around with more summery casual coordinates during
that time, but I guess it’ll have to wait. At least I won’t cook in my ILD
outfit this Saturday coming though.

26 May 2017

What makes something one’s dream dress varies from person to
person. To me this means that all possible factors – the dress cut, print,
colour, details, theme etc. – all come together into one whole that knocks me
off my feet and wows me to the point of crying and thinking “Why are you so
beautiful?!”. To put it a little dramatically… :P I’m lucky in that the
majority of the dresses that I do own are my dream dresses, but if I talk about
them all it’ll take too long, so I’ll try to narrow it down somehow.

23 May 2017

I was going to go to a meet with my
comm – but when I realised that this would mean not seeing my boyfriend for
another whole month (if not longer), I cancelled on that and called up a plan
us two have forged earlier: spending a day out in Manchester. Which, of course,
called for dressing up!

This is actually what I would’ve
worn to the comm meet as well. The Fairytale
Library skirt is my new favourite because of how easily you can dress it up
or down. In fact, I’ve been wearing it to work for a whole week before that
weekend and got plenty of compliments on what are some simple outfits by Lolita
standards. So it also ended up feeling quite cathartic to finally do a proper
Lolita outfit with it. Also: big shout out to the Putomayo socks as they stayed
up almost all day without sock glue. Now I want more Putomayo socks, but I’m
waiting for them to do some new designs.

Our day in Manchester consisted of
visiting the Manchester Museum, going out for ramen (which is what started the
whole thing) and a little bit of shopping. Despite it being a pretty gloomy day
all day, we managed to avoid most of the rain and stay relatively dry, but
unfortunately (and very surprisingly!) I was a little bit ill on that day which
affected my spirits a bit. (Context: last time I was ill, and that was quite
seriously ill, was 2014.)

The Manchester Museum is actually a
part of the University of Manchester and while I knew that they had several
different exhibits on, it still confused me a little bit. Rather than being a
museum specialised in one specific thing it felt more like a museum of
everything anyone affiliated with Manchester Uni ever laid their hands on. So
one moment we were looking at a typical archaeological exhibition focused on
Ancient Egypt and Ancient Roman artefacts found around Manchester – and then
suddenly we’re in a natural history part… from which we ended up in a little
aquarium of lizards and amphibians? This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a
better marking of what’s where or at least a map suggesting visit routes would’ve
mitigated the confusion a little bit. But hey, the museum staff appreciated my
book skirt, so I can’t really
complain and I did enjoy the visit.

From there we made the walk to the
city centre, which was a lot quicker than what Google Maps told us (25mins
according to them, more like 15-20mins at my low-energy pace). We went to
Shoryu Ramen, which is actually a London-based chain that managed to open up a
Northern branch. I’ve tried them before when I went to London once, so I knew
that I was getting what I was craving, but I’m glad that I also converted my
boyfriend a little bit too (this was his first time trying ramen). Bonus – the ramen
made me feel a bit better, proper comfort food, but also soups are amazing when
you’re poorly. It’s in Piccadilly Garden, so right in the middle of the city
and hard to miss.

What I didn’t realise has also come
up North from London was some of the shopping that we did after we refuelled.
After eating we had about an hour before shops would close and I don’t miss a
chance to go to Lush, ever. On our way there, however, I spotted a familiar
tattooed face on the Debenhams window. Yes, the Kat von D line, which has been
available through Debenhams in the UK since like last November, has finally
become available not just online and in London, but in other branch(es?) too. I
can’t exactly say that I’m obsessed with her makeup line, but I wanted to try
the Everlasting Liquid Lipsticks for a while and selecting colours online makes
me uncomfortable. And rightly so, because the colours that I would’ve bought
online I did not like at all in real life. Since I couldn’t decide, I bought
two and went straight to the till before I dropped any more money, and then we
proceeded to Lush where I dropped more money. The lady in Lush told me that
Debenhams has launched the Kat von D line in Manchester only the day before, so
that was such incredibly lucky timing as well! But whilst in that Lush I
realised that even “my” Leeds brand, which I thought was so great and well
stocked, was poor in comparison – the Manchester one had things which up until
then I’ve only seen online, like the iridescent eyeshadows. Again, deciding was
hard, but in the end I only got one which I plan on doubling up as a
highlighter – as well as one bath bomb and a small bottle of shower gel.
Because I was ill and deserved to spoil myself a little!

This is kind of silvery lavender sheen in real life

On our way back to the car I also
fulfilled a promise I made to my boyfriend in that I’d treat him to something
nice and he decided that this “something nice” would be a milkshake. We spotted
two branches of this milkshake (and burger) place called Archie’s and it turned
out to be absolutely delicious! I was too worried about a cold drink making me
worse, though I didn’t refuse when offered to try my boyfriend’s Oreolicious –
it was absolutely gorgeous! Pretty large for a regular size as well, but
totally worth it!

So in the end, even though I felt a
little weak and not really myself, I enjoyed spending a day out in Manchester.
It’s a place that I feel I should know better, but somehow never make my way there
– but every time I’ve been there recently I’ve been nothing but pleasantly
surprised and genuinely enjoyed my stay. So I guess it’s time to attend more
meets with the comm there, isn’t it?

19 May 2017

There are so many indie brands
creating absolutely amazing things that it’d be impossible to list them all.
Recently there’s been a bit of a rise of popularity for brooches and pins and
you’re really spoilt for choice. But when I saw Madillustration’s Patisserie
series I knew I had to have it.

16 May 2017

So far this year I’ve focused a lot
more time and energy into making things and getting more into crafting. Yes, I’ve
done bits and bobs before, but those were all things I knew I could do anyway,
there was no challenge there. Now I’m venturing out of my comfort zone a little
bit and learning new things whilst at it. Crafting also keeps me from spending
money (even though I still check out sales and find things I like and put
myself out there to be tempted) by giving me something else to do, so there
definitely will be more things coming!

12 May 2017

This skirt has been on preorder since January and it's finally arrived. And while I was at it and needed something anyway, I took advantage of having a Taobao order on the go already and added something extra from Fan+Friend (gosh, I never know how to spell it, separately, together, using words or the plus sign...).

9 May 2017

I’ve been getting pretty crafty
recently. It’s such a fun and relaxing way to do something that’s
Lolita-related that doesn’t involve buying new clothes (and in light of a
recent, fairly pricey pre-order, it’s something I should do a lot more of). Having said this, I’m
still a total amateur and all my projects are aimed at all the crafts novices.
This one, as you may remember, was on my to-do list for Dreamy Masquerade Carnival,
but I took advantage of the bank holiday weekend and all that extra time to get
it done earlier.

5 May 2017

No matter how much you love a brand,
there’s always something you wish they did more of. My favourite is
Angelic Pretty, so there are a few things I wish would feature more with – some are
things that other brands already are doing and some are what I’d like all
brands to take note of.

2 May 2017

It’s time to get creative with the
outfits again. At my current rate of buying things, one of these posts a month
might not cut it, so I’ll try to speed things up a little. This was my first
piece from Metamorphose temps de fille and I bought it mainly as I thought that
a solid colour JSK would be a good, versatile addition. And it is, as well as a
very comfortable one due to the full body shirring, and yet I’ve kept putting
it on the back burner a bit. Time to stop that.

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About me

Cupcake Kamisama – 26-year-old Capricorn, Polish-born, UK-based and in love with Japanese fashion (predominantly Lolita). When I don’t blog, I work in the education sector, write articles for Wunderwelt Libre and translate video game content on the side.